Thoughts and assorted philosophical musing about: Family, Friends, Fun, Hobbies, & other everyday things.My continuing efforts to serve as a First Sergeant (Top) in the Army of God.My latest interest is in Letterboxing.

NOTE: This blog uses a blogger template that is among the large mass of standardized page coding which Microsoft Internet Explorer is unable to interpret and reproduce correctly. To see the actual full content I recommend that you useany one of the other browsersthat are readily available for free download. My personal preference among these isFirefox.

Pages

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Cat got your tongue?

When I would sit a spell with nothing to say my Uncle Hal could always be expected to quip "What's a matta? - Cat got your tongue?" Well it has been nearly two weeks since I have done any whining here. Wow - so much has gone on! Fathers Day was great as nearby family members came by and fixed up a nice meal on Sunday. Plus my eldest son arranged for the delivery of two huge prime beef porterhouse steaks from a local gourmet butchers shop which we had on Saturday. A few nice shirts were thrown in as well. My youngest son gave me a certificate for a meal at a downtown steakhouse. I made out pretty well.

Last week was spent going several directions at once. We are trying to finish up remodeling our family room which has turned into a real project. My wife and kids planted my vegetable garden and her flowers. But the big project was Donna's retirement party.

The vast majority of the planning and preparation was done by our daughter Ellisa. After a date which was satisfactory for the whole family was selected and agreed upon, I was tasked with finding a place. It was difficult with such short notice this time of year. But I got luck as our neighboring town just finished renovating their old town hall to use as a party center. It was available, inexpensive, and nice. Then Ellisa took over like a professional event planner. She designed the invitations, worked up the mailing list, did the mailings, took RSVPs, planned the activities, and assembled everything needed. She coordinated with her brother Loren, who is a Chef and Dining Service Consultant, to select the menu items and to have them prepared.

The food trays (vegees, fruit, sandwichs, and cheeses) were catered by Kendal of Oberlin and the cake was a fantastic Casada creation by Fragapane Bakeries. I set up a Chocolate fountain, Ellisa made a tortilla dip, and we prepared cocktail weenies in a spicy hot sauce using an old recipe Donna's sister gave us years ago. The perfect organizer Ellisa put her three brothers, as well as anyone arriving early, to work getting all things ready. All of our four children and their families were able to get here. It was a great party.

We have been so busy that many normal tasks have gone undone recently. This week we are trying to catch up on things like doctors appointments and long postponed household tasks before we leave Friday on a seven day vacation.

I have had a letterbox reported as missing. That is really very disappointing to me. I do have two more in various stages of production which I will hopefully be able to put out soon. Also there are several new boxes nearby which I need to collect. While on vacation I hope to locate some of the 30 plus boxes that are listed within 10 mile of the Hocking Hills area that we will be visiting.